Lean days ahead for TV cooks
Couple will be on a $2.25-a-day diet to raise awareness of those who go hungry
Aaron and Heather Freeman have wowed
judges, fellow competitors and audiences with their culinary skills.
But from tomorrow the Palmerston North couple will be trading in fine cuts of meat and fresh produce for a diet costing only $2.25 a day as they, and thousands of other New Zealanders, take part in the Live Below the Line charity drive.
The global campaign is designed to raise awareness for the 1.2 billion people around the world who live on that meagre sum daily, as well as provide much-needed funds for the organisations who aid those living in extreme poverty.
“We’re just keen to build on the momentum of appearing on the show and we wanted to take every opportunity to give back to the community where possible,” Aaron told the
“Hopefully, we’ll help to address some of the problems of poverty we’ve country and around the world.
“It’s only five days and there’s over a billion people that have to do it everyday without any choice.”
The ingredients at the aspiring chefs’ disposal will be less than inspiring, totalling just $11.25 for five days and largely consisting of oats, rice and miso paste.
“It’ll be five pretty sombre days I imagine,” he said. “What we’re planning to do is to try to skimp on the first two or three days in the hope that on the fourth or fifth day we can treat ourselves a bit.
“So we’ll just break the back of it and hopefully reward ourselves with something extra part way through.
“But it’s looking like a whole lot of miso soup for the most part.”
Aaron said he’d had to scrape by on just a few dollars some days when he was at university, which he hoped would stand him in good stead.
He estimated that he usually spent $15 to $20 a day on food.
They intended to try to turn the concept of eating into a “simple, repetitive yet also optional function”.
“A lot of it will be mental and teaching the mind to understand and conquer hunger, and we will both be consuming large amounts of
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b‘ It’ll e five pretty sombre days, I imagine . . . it’s looking like a whole lot of miso soup, for the most part.’’
Aaron Freeman water during the challenge.”
Charities that are set to benefit from Live Below the Line include the Global Poverty Project, Oxfam, World Vision, the Tear Fund, Orphans Aid International and Engineers Without Borders.
Aaron and Heather Freeman are seeking to raise donations for Oxfam.
Comedian Jesse Mulligan is among the many New Zealanders taking part, raising money for Tear Fund’s anti-human trafficking work.
“Fifty-one weeks of the year, I’m a greedy pig. I eat three large, sprawling meals a day and when I’m on holiday at least five or six,” he said.
“Showing a little self-restraint for five days to support Live Below the Line seemed like the least I could do.”